#554 What’s in store at Quarters

June 3, 2009

I won’t hold it against you if you’ve never heard of Quarters Boutique on Broadway in Newmarket. I hadn’t either until Frank who owns it (along with Qubic downstairs) sent me an email about the little video I did on the night of the Air Yeezy launch. Quarters is like one of those Japanese boutiques you always hear about – impossible to find if you don’t know about it, but once you know, you know. To put it in hip hop terms, if Qubic is the Jay Z of streetwear stores, Quarters is its Mos Def – slightly more refined and suited to a more sophisticated audience. Frank told me that the reason behind the store’s anonymity is that when a potential stockist approaches the Japanese brands he sells (Sophnet, SophnetxVisvim, Uniform Experiment), they’re forced to sign a contract with the brands promising to not sell them at ground level on a main shopping street. At the Visvim stores in Japan, no music is played and the retail staff aren’t even allowed to talk to customers unless spoken to first. They’re peculiar philosophies but they seem to work – the brands all have extreme cult followings.

why is everyone so obsessed with the blue shorts? Alter a pair of dickies, they have that exact colour!!!! Other stuff rules though, there should be way more underground store culture in nz a la comme des garcons.